THE NATIONS: Cordial Visit

A greying member of London's Savage Club
looked out on the bedecked and crowded Mall, slowly shook his head and
muttered: "I don't like it at all. The last time a French President
paid a state visit to Britain was in 1939, and the time before that it
was 1913!"

But few Britons saw a sign of war in the arrival last week of rotund,
65-year-old Vincent Auriol. The tensions of an uneasy peace stressed
anew the importance of the 46-year-old Entente Cordiale between France
and Britain. The beaming

French President and his wife were warmly welcomed and royally
entertained. The...